ReaDoubt 2017

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One of the main goal of this conference is to promote, in addition to interdisciplinary dialogue, a discussion with practicing professionals, who are confronted with the question of the (un)reasonableness of doubt(s) in their everyday decisions.

Friday afternoon session will be devoted to a roundtable bringing together distinguished professionals (who may also be academics) from several domains.

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AUDIO PODCAST OF THE ROUNDTABLE HERE

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PARTICIPANTS

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The session will be moderated by Stephen John, Hatton Lecturer in the Philosophy of Public Health at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge. Stephen's research interests are in political philosophy, philosophy of science and public health policy, particularly where these three disciplines overlap. He has published several papers on values in science, on risk and its communication, on the role of experts in public health debates, as well as on the precautionary principle.

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Alexandra Marks

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Alexandra Marks a Commissioner at the Criminal Cases Review Commission. She qualified as a solicitor in 1983, and was a partner at Linklaters LLP for over 20 years till 2003. She now sits as a Recorder in the Crown court, and as a Deputy High Court Judge.

She is also Solicitor Commissioner at the Judicial Appointments Commission.

In 2008-09, she was Master of the Worshipful Company of Solicitors of the City of London, and President of the City of London Law Society.

Alexandra is also Chair of Prisoners’ Education Trust, and a Council member of JUSTICE, the all party law reform organisation.

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Chris Rapley

CBE, M.A., Ph.D., D.Sc.

Professor of Climate Science

University College London

Department of Earth Sciences

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Professor Chris Rapley CBE is Professor of Climate Science at University College London. He is a Fellow of St Edmund’s College Cambridge, a member of the Academia Europaea, a Distinguished Visiting Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Chairman of the London Climate Change Partnership. 

His previous posts include Director of the Science Museum London, Director of the British Antarctic Survey, President of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, Executive Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, and Head of UCL's Earth Observation satellite group. 

His current interests are in the communication of climate science. With the playwright Duncan Macmillan he wrote and performed at the Royal Court theatre, London the acclaimed play ‘2071 – The World We’ll Leave Our Grandchildren’. 

Prof Rapley was awarded the 2008 Edinburgh Science Medal for having made ‘a significant contribution to the understanding and wellbeing of humanity’.

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Tom Sheldon

Senior Press Manager, Science Media Centre

 

The Science Media Centre is an independent press office for the UK scientific community.  It exists to help ensure that science and engineering in the UK national news is reported accurately and responsibly, particularly when a story has the potential for controversy.  They give journalists the opportunity to speak to real experts, and actively encourage scientists to speak out when stories break.  They also run regular press briefings, which allow scientists to set the news agenda on important subjects of public interest.  Although independent, the SMC is unashamedly pro-science and has no public ‘brand’ to promote.  This gives them the freedom to concentrate on what is

important: keeping sound, evidence-based science at the top of the news agenda.

Tom joined the SMC in April 2008 and handles any issues in the fields of engineering, energy and the environment that hit the headlines. He has degrees in Artificial Intelligence and Bioinformatics. He has worked on a number of high profile stories including mobile phones and cancer, GM crops and climate change, and in June 2013 he gave evidence to the Science and Technology Committee inquiry into communication of climate science.

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David James Smith

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David James Smith is a Commissioner at the Criminal Cases Review Commission and an award winning journalist and author. He has written extensively about crime and criminal justice issues, conducting detailed investigations into some of the most high profile cases of recent years.He has written five non-fiction books including The Sleep Of Reason – The James Bulger Case and Supper With The Crippens about the Edwardian murderer Hawley Harvey Crippen.  David’s longform journalism for The Sunday Times Magazine won him Broadsheet Feature Writer Of The Year at the British Press Awards in 2011 and again in 2012.